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A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Short Stories
These seventeen stories, first published in Italian between 1949 and 1986, demonstrate Levi's extraordinary range, taking the reader from the primal resistance of a captured partisan fighter to a middle-aged chemist experimenting with a new paint that wards off evil, to the lustful thoughts of an older man obsessed with a mysterious woman in a seaside villa. In the title s...more
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published
April 11th 2007
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published January 1st 1988)
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Who knew Levi had a penchant for fantasist storytelling? Several of the stories in here are whimsical, and it was a treat to experience since I've only read the heavy works by Levi. "Bureau of Vital Statistics" was my favorite, but "In the Park" was neat, the place where book characters go to live before they fade away.
Even the stories that seemed more like a brief chronicle from his real life rather than a complete short story had worth--like the following line:
"We were at that age when you hav...more
Even the stories that seemed more like a brief chronicle from his real life rather than a complete short story had worth--like the following line:
"We were at that age when you hav...more
There are times when I pick a book at random off a library shelf and don't regret it at all. This slim volume caught my eye for no particular reason but turned out to be one of the best collections of short stories I've read for a long time (probably since J.G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands in 2001, if we're going to be pedantic.) I had heard of Primo Levi and knew he'd written a book called The Periodic Table that was named "the best science book ever" by the Royal Institution of Great Britain. I a...more
Jan 17, 2011
VJ
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
scientists, lovers of short stories, screenplay writers
Recommended to VJ by:
Japanese programming
Shelves:
short-stories-fairy-tales,
philosophy
There are five stories in this collection that I absolutely love. The rest of the stories are extremely lucid, written plainly and straightforwardly, but they may be a bit too subtle for me.
Levi's stories are unlike any I've read before in that they seem to be more like anecdotes, or stories shared between friends before a fire, over a snifter of brandy. They don't have traditional beginnings, middles, and endings. The stories are more like scenes that we are brought to in the middle of the act...more
Levi's stories are unlike any I've read before in that they seem to be more like anecdotes, or stories shared between friends before a fire, over a snifter of brandy. They don't have traditional beginnings, middles, and endings. The stories are more like scenes that we are brought to in the middle of the act...more
A Tranquil Star est un recueil de 17 brèves nouvelles de Primo Levi. Elles ont été écrites à diverses époques (la première remonte à 1949), L'ensemble est inégal, mais certaines nouvelles sont intéressantes, comme Gladiators, où des gladiateurs affrontent des automobilistes dans une arène. One Night est une histoire troublante, un train qui s'immobilise sur des rails à cause de feuilles mortes. Je crois que ma préférée est The Magic Paint, qui parle d'une sorte de peinture pour attirer la chance...more
Jun 04, 2011
Wayne
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
european-favourites,
short-stories
Initially excitement.
But a cheat by the publishers.
These are NOT unpublished stories at all.
All have been published in Italian for awhile.
For some this seems to be their first rendering into English.
Others a second rendering into English.
But a cover that proclaims "UNPUBLISHED STORIES" is meant to be misleading to SELL.
And from PENGUIN BOOKS not to be expected.
The Barbarians have taken over Education so why not the Bookworld???
Another gripe.
It is not mentioned that Levi committed suicide in his...more
But a cheat by the publishers.
These are NOT unpublished stories at all.
All have been published in Italian for awhile.
For some this seems to be their first rendering into English.
Others a second rendering into English.
But a cover that proclaims "UNPUBLISHED STORIES" is meant to be misleading to SELL.
And from PENGUIN BOOKS not to be expected.
The Barbarians have taken over Education so why not the Bookworld???
Another gripe.
It is not mentioned that Levi committed suicide in his...more
Primo Levi always cheers me up - his gentle humor, his depth, his love of the mysteries of the world. I found this collection of short stories tremendously satisfying. It would be so fun to read his work n Italian, because so much of his work is about language, but even in English something lovely and subtle comes through. Considering that Primo Levi was an Auschwitz survivor, his sensibilities are even more astonishing.
A Tranquil Star is a collection of previously unpublished short stories by Primo Levi. I wonder if Levi could be called Italy's Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.? There are science fiction stories, stories with no characters and stories full of surprises and quirks. My favorites are "The Death of Marinese," "The Sorcerers" and "The Girl in the Book."
Periodic table was in my to read list but couldn't find it in the library. That's when I came across this book. I like the short stories : "Magic Paint" , "Knall", "The fugitive", "one night" , "Bureau of vital statistics" and "A tranquil star".
Favorite will be "The Fugitive" and I'm sure I will be on the look out for "The Periodic Table"
Favorite will be "The Fugitive" and I'm sure I will be on the look out for "The Periodic Table"
It feel somewhat sacreligious not to praise Levi, but the truth is that this is not a very good collection of stories. Although there are some high points when he writes about the displacement of the War, on the whole, this does not stand beside his greatest work.
This collection is a bit uneven, which I suppose is to be expected. Sometimes the conceit seems more developed than the story itself, but it still makes for intriguing what-if topics in "Censorship in Bitinia," "Knall," or "The TV Fans from Delta Cep." (You get a sense of Vonnegut in some of the structures.) There are some other standouts, such as a reflection on anthropology in "The Sorcerers" and a neat take on a chemistry accident in "The Molecule's Defiance." But really the only one not to m...more
Primo Levi is one of my all time favorite authors, and I thought I had read everything he had written before his tragic death about 10 years ago. Last night at the library I found this book of short stories, which has just been translated from the Italian. Some are funny, some sad -- so it is not the unrelenting horror of the Auswitz novels. Highly recommend!
I'm a huge Primo Levi fan and I've read all his novels. I preferred the later stories to the earlier ones. I don't know why they call them unpublished since most of them have been published before but in Italian.
Was aware of Mr. Levi's memoirs & essays, but this unpublished collection was a pleasant surprise. Somewhat reminescent of Steven Millhausen's work.....whimsical, a bit askew, but not as dark.
Whimsical stories, bordering on precious... many of them on the wrong side of that border in my opinion. 'The Sorcerers' was my favorite story of the set.
The most notable stories, in my opinion, were "The Molecule's Revenge", "The Death of Marinese", "In the Park", "The Magic Paint", and "A Tranquil Star".
Having left the Holocaust behind, Levi has happened upon a world of unlikely, unexpected adventures in this collection of short stories. The stories are as scintillating, as memorable as Primo Levi�s memoirs. I�d recommend this to anyone who likes short stories, in short!
Stories that do not have holocaust theme, written later in his life. He was a great story teller with real humor.
Some 3s, some 4s, some 5s (One Night the 5iest) among these 17 nice tales from Primo Levi.
Jan 08, 2009
Aldo
is currently reading it
The actual translation is incorrect, it should read " The box wrench"
Some of these short stories will stay with you forever.
One Night appeals to every idealist.
stunning prose.
The first book of Primo Levi I've read. Bear Meat is a great story. It depicts hiking and stamina perfectly.
Deceptively simple stories-- often amazing.
I didn't actually read all the stories--though I thought they were good, I got tired of the sort of bite-sized format. Bear Meat, which I read in a magazine at some point, is wonderful. Even better was A Tranquil Star, a meditation on the failures of language--a neat way to end a story collection.
I listened to about half of this book, and then had to turn it back to the library. I should take it out again and listen to the rest. Some stories were more insightful than others, but overall I enjoyed what I heard.
a charming collection of short stories from a man usually known as a holocaust writer. this a quick read, and i enjoyed it very much.
It's hard for me not to really like Levi, but this is definitely the weakest work of his that I've read.
there are some good stories in here and some i don't really fully remember.
An interesting collection. Enjoyable but not as good as Periodic Table.
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Primo Michele Levi was a Jewish Italian chemist, Holocaust survivor and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, and novels.
He is best known for his work on the Holocaust, and in particular his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. If This Is a Man (published in the United States as Survival in Auschwitz) has been described as one...more
More about Primo Levi...
He is best known for his work on the Holocaust, and in particular his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. If This Is a Man (published in the United States as Survival in Auschwitz) has been described as one...more
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Jan 09, 2009 05:54am